Bonfire Toffee
by savage barbie
Summary: In the Shinohai Family, the only holiday more melodramatic than Christmas is Halloween. And this one is the worst yet; Zuko and Katara join the festivities so that his father can meet his new grandchild, which predictably sparks a battle royale. — Autumn Tyzula Week 2016. Dynasty-verse. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: **Some Quick Facts About This Fic:  
Chapters: **4  
 **Pairing(s):** Azula x Ty Lee, Mai x Ozai, Zuko x Katara  
 **Rated:** T for mild language and mature humor.  
 **Notes:** This is a ficlet set in the Spring Fever / Midwinter Madness universe. It is for Autumn Tyzula Week 2016.

* * *

 _BONFIRE TOFFEE_

 _"_ _Mrs. Voorhees was a terrific serial killer, and there's always room for Candyman's daughter. She's sweet, she's deadly, she's bad for your teeth."  
-Scream 2-_

* * *

 ** _October 28_** ** _th  
Trouble and Wild  
_**

* * *

"Why would you take a baby trick-or-treating?" Ozai Shinohai demands.

He and his wife stand in their mansion, surrounded by Halloween decorations that would make their everyday home qualify as an extreme haunted house. Mai looks as she always does, save for the headband with the mini witch's hat. They both wait for Azula and Ty Lee while discussing their plans.

Mai turns away from the golden-eyed six-month-old by the name of Valerie and replies, "So that I can get a ton of candy and eat it all, obviously. Don't you have two other kids?"

Ozai cocks an eyebrow. That is new. "I never took them trick-or-treating as babies." Pause. "I never took them trick-or-treating in the first place. Why would I ever want to do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe Zuko would hate you less if you did." Mai begins to smirk before realizing that Zuko will be here this afternoon.

Ozai laughs. "I hated him long before he had the chance to hate me, and meeting my grandchild is not worth having to deal with him for a week. It's probably going to be a terrible grandchild. Not like Bunny. Bunny is the perfect grandchild, and will not easily be shown up by whatsername."

Mai cannot help but say, "Her name's Kya. Katara is horrible but at least she's better at naming kids than Ty Lee."

Right on cue, Azula enters the room declaring, "Speaking of, I'm thinking about being an Eskimo just to piss her off. I will be _literally_ the most racist sexy Eskimo _ever_."

She and Ty Lee had been upstairs rummaging through over twenty years of Halloween costumes. Their sickeningly sweet conversations and Ty Lee's ceaseless compliments of Azula's outfits and body have been awkwardly audible to Mai and Ozai for an hour now.

"Is that an Eskimo costume? Because you look like a vampire." Mai sits down with Valerie on her lap. Azula scowls.

She holds up one finger, her sharp fingernail glinting like a knife. "One, I am an Evil Witch Queen."

Mai thinks she may have lost control of her mouth because she comments, "But, Azula, on Halloween you're supposed to wear a _costume_."

Azula holds up a second finger and ignores her stepmother. "Shut up. Two, I said I was _thinking_ about it."

Mai shrugs and turns to her other best friend. "And Ty Lee is the 1950's."

Azula rolls her eyes and prevents Ty Lee from speaking for herself by replying, "Ty Lee is Jackie Kennedy. I made that costume myself."

Mai watches Ty Lee spin and Azula watch her hungrily. It could not be grosser. "As usual, Ty Lee, you're aiming high with First Lady."

Ty Lee blithely cheers, "I would _love_ to be first lady!"

Mai and her stepdaughter exchange an old, familiar glance. "She said excitedly, my insult going right over her head…"

Azula predictably says to her father, "I want to be president. Will you fund my campaign of being president?"

And Ozai predictably replies to his daughter, "Sure. Why not?"

"Why are you laughing?" Azula shouts at Mai.

"Because I'd rather vote for President Ghost-of-Hitler than you. Or maybe Ghost-of-Stalin. Ghost-of-Nixon? Ghost-of-Prince-Joffrey?" Mai adjusts Valerie in her arms.

Azula stands straighter, appearing even more regal. "I would be the best president _ever_ , and _everyone_ would vote for me because I'm sexy and would tell them what they wanted to hear. I did enough reports on Joseph McCarthy to know how to scare the population into loving me."

"Did I say you wouldn't win?" says Mai. "No. You'd win. I just wouldn't vote for you."

"Well, you are my best friend and best man and best mother, so that is heartbreaking. And you _would_ be my vice president but now that you've made your lack of loyalty clear, I would rather run with Zuko. At least I expect him to stab me in the back."

"True friends stab you in the front," remarks Mai. "Oscar Wilde said that."

Ty Lee innocently inquires, "Who's Oscar Wilde?"

Azula just shoots Ty Lee a glare and says to her stepmother, "True friends don't stab you."

Ty Lee purses her lips, thinking briefly, and interrupts Azula and Mai again by attempting, "He made the _Twilight Zone_ , didn't he?"

Azula snaps, "No, that was Gene Roddenberry."

Mai corrects, "That was Rod Serling."

Azula shoots Mai a quick glare. "I know. That's what I said."

[X]

Irately, from the passenger seat of their car, Katara replies to Zuko, "We're visiting your dad, not going into a lion's den."

"And Azula and Ty Lee and Mai, which makes it worse than a lion's den. They hate you and they hate me and they'll be really mean to us."

"Why do they hate you?" Katara asks. She despises them, yes, but she cannot quite comprehend how out of hand this family is.

Zuko rattles off, "Mai hates me because I broke off our engagement, Ty Lee hates whoever Azula hates, and Azula hates me for a list of reasons that, if written down, would be ten times as long as _War and Peace_. Most of which being our mother's love and me stealing her girlfriend after she was committed."

Katara cannot suppress her laughter. "Everything you just said was insane."

"I know. I know, but we're really just asking for trouble by this visit. It's going to be horrible."

"It's not _asking for trouble_. Are they terrible people? Yes. Are we staying in a hotel? Yes. See? It will be a trouble-free vacation."

Kya begins to wail.

It will be a _mostly_ trouble-free vacation.

[X]

"Where's Bunny?" asks Ozai, studying his daughter.

The debate of Rod Serling's merits has ended and Ozai Shinohai has realized the absence of his best grandchild.

Azula answers, "Playing _Grand Theft Auto_ in one of the living rooms."

"She's eight," comments Mai, unsure if she is judging them or not.

Azula snidely asks, "And your point is? Child soldiers kill _actual people_ at eight, Mai."

"When she's a wild child, out of control and terrible, we'll all blame you," Mai says, although she must admit the logic is semi-sound. It is not like she will give Valerie many restrictions in the future.

The doorbell rings. A chill comes over Azula.

"Here comes trouble," she whispers to Ty Lee.

Ty Lee kisses her cheek, squeezing her hand to try to comfort her.

Once Mai answers it, Azula hears the bickering of a small family. Zuko, Katara and a three-year-old that Zuko has kept sheltered from Ozai at all costs, until Katara convinced him that introducing Kya to her grandfather was the right thing to do.

"Well, Zuko," says Ozai, considering extending his hand but changing his mind when he remembers that he will just be disappointed by the handshake. "It's high time you meet your sister."

Katara smiles at Valerie. Valerie smiles back.

Mai silently watches.

"It's also high time you meet your _grandchild_ ," says Zuko, nudging the tiny little girl forward.

The mixture of her parents' features makes her look far warmer than either Zuko or Katara. Kya has tan skin and untamed dark hair with the sharp Shinohai features and bright golden eyes as large as her mother's.

Kya blinks and hides behind her mother's leg. Ty Lee smiles at her, while the other three Shinohais stare and wonder what to say. This could not be a more awkward situation.

"You can meet your sister," says Ozai, breaking the silence and gesturing at the baby. "She's flawless, isn't she?"

"Deja vu," grumbles Zuko with a short glare directed at Azula, and, if they hear him, they ignore him.

Ty Lee kneels and greets her niece.

[X]

Katara screams from the kitchen. Zuko sits, staring at the television with his father, stepmother slash ex-fiancee, sister, sister-in-law, and three children. None of them say a word, and Katara tried to flee the discomfort by finding a drink.

"What's wrong?" Zuko shouts, standing up and going to find her.

"Whose bloody shirt is this?" she exclaims, her cobalt eyes wide.

He finds her and wraps one arm around his girlfriend. She would reject the gesture from most people, but Zuko has earned the right to try to comfort her. Mai walks in and leans against the doorway.

"It's part of my Halloween costume. The blouse really is perfect so don't touch it. I have to watch the drying fake blood to make sure it stays in the right place. Paws off," Mai snaps.

"I'm—who are you being?" Katara asks, her eyelashes fluttering.

"Mia Wallace, obviously. The bra was hard enough to find. I had to have it _made_ by a bra artisan, which is somehow a thing. So, I'm not ruining the time I spent on that bra by having the blood stains in the wrong place," explains Mai, her arms crossed.

"For the party?" Katara inquires. "Are we going to that, Zuko? I don't know if it's… my thing."

"It's not that wild," Zuko says.

Mai scoffs. "It wasn't arranged by _me_ when it wasn't that wild. Parties are boring, but not this one. I went all out and my drug dealer bought two new cars."

Katara shrugs, Zuko agape, neither wanting to complain.

[X]

"Ty Lee, you look amazing," Azula remarks breathily, but her wife pays her no mind.

She is fixated on the cat. It is a calico with dark black and bright white fur, and Ty Lee keep staring without petting it or holding it.

"Your cats paws are _huge_ ," Ty Lee says, wide-eyed with wonder. "Look how big its paws are!"

Azula shrugs. "It's to help her better survive in the wild. Now kick out the cat like you kicked out the Bunny and let's try to have a vacation."

"In your childhood bedroom?" Ty Lee asks, glancing around.

"We did when we were teenagers." Azula sits down on her bed. "It is not different."

"Well…" Ty Lee watches the cat run away. She stands and shuts the door. "You have a really good point, like you always do."

She leans forward and kisses Azula.

They cannot resist each other for long.

Until the cat scratches on the door nonstop with its humongous paws and they both end up lying on the bed, half-dressed and completely unsatisfied.

Azula thinks that perhaps Vallencourt should be an outdoor cat from now on.


	2. Chapter 2

**_October 29_** ** _th  
Kittens and Mountains_**

* * *

"Aren't Vallencourt's paws like _enormous_?" exclaims Ty Lee over the breakfast table, gesturing to the calico cat sitting on her lap. "Like _look at them_!"

Mai and Azula are not impressed. Mai continues sipping coffee with a vacant expression and Azula continues rummaging through the fridge and adding various sauces to a large glass.

"You have everything for a Bloody Mary except for celery. Literally everything. You people have _celery salt_. Who the Hell needs _celery salt_ but don't have _actual celery_?"

"Just put lettuce in it," says Mai, waving her hand. "It's the same thing."

"It is _not_ the same thing," Azula snaps, but she opens the fridge and shoves lettuce into her drink anyway. "But it will do."

"You sure you should mix that with Xanax?"

"You sure you should do cocaine? And probably other drugs."

"Fine, enjoy your potentially lethal medication interaction."

"I would _rather_ have a lethal interaction with medications than have a polite interaction with Katara."

The doorbell rings and Mai mutters, "Speak of the Devil…"

"I'll protect you from her," Ty Lee says, hugging Azula from behind. Kissing her neck does little to stop Azula's anger. "I'm a great protector of my perfect wife. I'll guard you like a mama cat guards her kittens."

"Incesty analogy but…" Azula kisses Ty Lee and goes to answer the door.

Katara smiles at the terrible people she thinks she will always despise. Zuko holds her hand to try to keep her calm, while letting Kya hold onto him from the other side. Azula glares for a fleeting moment, then wordless turns and sits down with her Bloody Mary.

Bunny takes the initiative to greet her cousin, smiling as brightly as her mom and guiding Kya to the floor in front of the television. Her Barbies litter the area, and Kya chews on the head of one of them while Bunny tries to explain a complicated pretend game.

"They remind me of us," Ty Lee whispers, abandoning Vallencourt to sit on Azula's lap. Azula struggles to sip her drink around her wife's body. "Bunny is you and all smart and creative and I'm the one who just totally loves how smart the game is."

"Also an incesty analogy but…"

Ty Lee shrugs.

Azula spills her drink and howls from rage, shattering the glass against the table and cursing when one of the shards nicks her finger.

Mai sighs. It will be a long day.

[X]

The entire family sits near the bar, the television the only way to keep conversation civil. Mai is in Valerie's room putting her to sleep, and so at least Katara and Zuko are spared the sarcastic comments. Azula is half-zombie right in time for Halloween and Ty Lee cuddles against her on the sofa. Ozai watches it all and tries not to be so disappointed.

"I brought cookies," Katara reiterates to her boyfriend. "I make _fantastic_ molasses cookies and you know it."

"I do know it, but I think getting my family to _eat_ them might be challenging," says Zuko.

Katara turns to Azula, attempting to prove herself. "Do you want some of the cookies?" she asks in a sweet tone that Azula Shinohai does not deserve.

Azula glances up from her phone, irritated by the interruption. She smirks at Katara. "No, thanks, I am allergic to cat piss."

Katara glares and drops the cookies back onto the counter. Zuko cringes when they crash.

She pulls Zuko aside. "I am going to go upstairs, I'm going to put on some nice music, I'm going to fill up your bathtub, and I am going to _drown_ her in it."

"When I'm in fits of rage, you always tell me to imagine my happy place in the mountains. Please imagine your happy place on the beach or… tundra… or wherever you want," Zuko says, rubbing Katara's shoulder.

She glowers at him and walks into the other room.

"Uh, Ozai, where's Zuko's room?" she asks, half-focused on keeping her teeth parted so she does not grind them into dust.

"Zuko doesn't have a room here."

"No, where did he sleep when he lived here?"

"In a perfect world, he would sleep on the couch or floor, but we have seven bedrooms so he just stayed in the ugliest guest room."

Katara is stunned into silence, but Zuko groans.

"You know," he says, "when I was little I used to pretend you weren't my father."

Ozai casually replies, "So did I."

Azula cackles and Ty Lee cannot fight her fit of laughter.

[X]

"And we're going to go live in the mountains, like the kid in that book who had the bird," Ty Lee says, making a literary reference that Azula does not understand. That is a first.

They sit and watch everyone else finishing the decorations for the huge party tomorrow. Azula feels remarkably safe resting in Ty Lee's arms, and also quite like royalty when Ty Lee gently strokes her face and ferries Azula's Monster from the coffee table to her mouth.

"I hate the wilderness, but that actually sounds good. I would rather die than go to this party." Azula sighs and sinks further into the arms of her wife. "We can build a cabin with our bare hands."

"I was thinking treehouse."

"We probably will just have a pathetic shanty because I doubt we could build either of those things. Maybe we could hollow out a tree."

"Caves," Ty Lee excitedly whispers. "Mountains have _caves_."

"Well, cave-people do not have to attend Halloween parties, so I am on board with your idea," Azula says. "It is so much better than the cupcake company or… any other idea you have ever had."

Ty Lee smiles. "Thank you, princess."

"She calls you princess?" asks Katara as she climbs up a ladder to hang new spiderwebs. "Your _dad_ calls you princess."

"Maybe because I basically _am_ a princess, you worthless hippie bitch." Azula closes her eyes and pretends to fall asleep.

Katara deliberately drops the spiderwebs onto Azula and Ty Lee.

How could she possibly resist?

[X]

"Azula," Ty Lee softly asks during a smoke-break she did not want to partake in, "can you promise me something?"

"I _can_ , but I cannot promise that I will fulfill the promise," Azula says before coughing.

Ty Lee ignores her concerns about her wife's health and says, "I really want you to be nice to people and not jealous and not mean to Zuko and Katara and not cruel and not jealous—did I say not jealous—and also nice to people."

Azula takes a moment to decipher that slurry of words.

As soon as she comprehends it, she cavalierly replies, "Well, people in Hell want ice water."


	3. Chapter 3

**_October 30_** ** _th  
Wishes and Unplanned_**

* * *

"It's eleven-eleven," chimes Ty Lee, sitting in one of the living rooms. Bunny runs over pedestrians in front of her while Azula sips her Monster. "Make a wish everybody!"

Azula scowls. "I wish I was the empress of the world and had the power to execute my brother and Katara," she mutters, only loud enough for her wife to hear.

"I wish you'd be more optimistic and positive and stop whining about not having absolute power over the entire world."

"Oh, but you would rule _with me_ , Ty Lee. Imagine how sexy that would be. You could be my loyal bodyguard and general of my army, and maybe my queen, because conquering the world gets lonely, I would imagine." Azula kisses her wife.

Mai mimes retching and says dryly, "I wish you two would stop being so sickening."

Ty Lee smiles at her childhood best friend.

"We just love each other so much," she airily says.

To Azula, that kills the sexy moment.

[X]

"The Halloween party is tonight and I'm so unprepared for the social discomfort," Katara says, lying down and clasping her hands over her abdomen.

She is in the hotel with her boyfriend. Kya is taking her nap and they have a few scarce moments of silence. They are broken by the endless competition between Azula and Zuko.

"Yeah. I'm probably going to get in a fist-fight with my dad. I hope that won't embarrass you."

"It did embarrass me the first five times you got beaten to a pulp by your own father but—"

"I won like two of those fights."

"Yeah, but you still got beaten pretty brutally. That's not including the walls you've punched. It really could not possibly embarrass me anymore."

Zuko sniffs in and sits down.  
"So, sexy nurse costume?"

"One, I am a sexy surgeon, not a sexy nurse. Two, I was going to just wear my own scrubs like I usually do. _But_ you seem really adamant about me being hotter than your sister's wife, which I would call sexist and disgusting if I didn't hate her so much and want to look way more attractive than Azula ever could. She wouldn't know if she would envy me or have sex with me."

"Ick."

[X]

The party has yet to begin, but the sun is setting and soon the guests—all important artists, politicians and athletes—will arrive. Katara and Zuko take a break from turning a faux Roman palace into a gorier version of the Addams' manor.

"Costume or not, I mean, I'm way more successful than Ty Lee. She's a failed secretary and I'm a _surgeon_."

Azula interjects, startling both Katara and Zuko, "Yes, but I am much more successful than Zuko, so we balance each other out."

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"No. I came outside to smoke and had no idea you two would be whining about how jealous you are of my flawless marriage."

"I hope you get lung cancer," Katara mutters under her breath.

Zuko's eyes widen. He did not know Katara could be that _hateful_. She has compassion for murderers and terrible drivers.

"I hope you die of protein deficiency," snaps Azula.

Ty Lee wraps herself around Azula. She smiles.

"Are you being mean to my perfect wife?"

"No." Katara shrugs. Zuko moves to wrap himself around her but she sets her hand forcefully on his chest. "As a doctor, I think I'm obliged to inform her of the dangers of smoking, ravaging the Earth for fossil fuels and being cruel to everyone. Cancer, the apocalypse, and being murdered."

Zuko clears his throat. "So, Azula, what's your costume?"

"Do you not see my crown?" She points at the accessory. "I'm an Evil Witch Queen."

"You're supposed to wear a costume on Halloween, Azula," says Zuko.

"Ha ha. Mai already used that joke two days ago."

[X]

Mai was not lying when she said the party would be wild. The music does not fit the party; it is all old, crackly and creepy, but people still somehow find a way to grind to the sounds of the 1930's. Azula has never seen so many glow sticks and couples making out in one place. She stands in the corner, holding Ty Lee by the arm so she cannot leave her sight.

"Azula, I'm not going to cheat on you; please let me go talk to friends," Ty Lee begs yet again. Azula tightens her grip.

"You are dressed as a Playboy Bunny and _everyone_ here is trying to get laid."

"You picked my costume!"

"Yes, because I wanted you to look hotter than Katara. I did not plan ahead of that since I was blinded by my loathing for that pathetic excuse for a human being."

"I've never ever cheated on you ever, and I get a _lot_ of offers."

"You cheated on me with my brother."

"Over ten years ago! And it wasn't a real relationship either. We were both on the rebound."

"How could you be on the rebound when we were still dating?"

"It's not like we were going on a lotta dates while you were locked up in an asylum. It's not like I _planned_ on leaving you for Zuko. He was so much worse than you at everything and not very good in bed and I'm not just saying that because you look like you're about to strangle me and bury me in the backyard right now."

"Ick."

[X]

It is a few minutes until midnight and the party treats it like New Year's. Tomorrow is Halloween and everyone seems oddly excited about that.

Azula is alone and hates it. Ty Lee said she was going to get a drink and did not come back. It is making her seethe with rage and she cannot enjoy the countdown. The _countdown_.

Maybe she should have a spontaneous tryst with someone. That would devastate and destroy Ty Lee. It will turn her into _ashes of agony_.

Azula stands in front of a man on the sofa and points. Then pokes him and points again. Her glare makes him get up and rush away into the thick crowd. Azula sits down and eyes the party like a lioness seeking prey.

She has a priority above making Katara utterly miserable for the extent of her stay.

It is one worthy of her attention, beyond worthy of her attention.

The fake bell chimes loudly; it is October 31st.

She will destroy Ty Lee Shinohai if it is the last thing she ever does.


	4. Chapter 4

**_October 31_** ** _st  
Candles and The Hanging Tree_**

* * *

The party rages past midnight. Zuko has yet to get into a fistfight with Ozai, but he has hidden himself from most of the partygoers by staying in the kitchen and pounding drinks. Katara walks through the sea of people talking, a few dancing, most lingering and drinking.

She finds Mai in the corner at her own Halloween bash.

"So," Katara begins, sidling up beside her mother-in-law, "why did Zuko break off your engagement?"

"Who the fuck starts a conversation with a question like that?" Pause. "It doesn't matter that he broke it off, since it wasn't going to last anyway. It matters that he broke it off through a text."

"He never told me that part. Why wouldn't it have lasted?"

"Because we actually hated each other. We thought we liked each other when we saw each other four times a month, then we spent a summer together and realized we hated each other. He was the real problem."

"How?"

"If you want to understand exactly how Zuko was the problem, go back in time and have a threesome with Oedipus and Sigmund Freud."

"Are you talking about yourself or Ursa?"

"Who do you think?"

"I honestly don't know. He's had sex with you and your technically his mother so I mean…"

"He's not my son; he's older than me."

"That's not always the rule when you marry someone born before the moon landing."

"Th-the moon landing? You measure time by the moon landing?"

"I guess I do." Katara sighs.

[X]

Azula has not gone a few feet before she walks into the packed parlor and sees Ty Lee talking to a man in a Hercules costume. She crosses her arms, able to tell from across the room that the guy is flirting with her. She starts to walk over to smash Hercules's head against the wall, until she sees him lean in and kiss Ty Lee.

Ty Lee does not stop him.

Azula crushes the thankfully-plastic-glass in her hand and rushes out of the room.

She walks blindly through the party, ready to hook the first person who wants to get in on some Evil Witch Queen action. Unfortunately, the first person who stops in front of her is Katara.

"You're on a mission," says the hippie disguised as a sexy nurse.

Azula will admit that her brother somehow managed to snag hot women on a regular basis. They all had dreadful personalities—including Ty Lee and Mai—but Azula never cared much about that part of a partner.

"I am on a mission to cheat on my wife," Azula says. Katara's eyebrows shoot up. "Get me drunk enough and I'll let you… poke me with your syringe? Is that a good metaphor? Don't answer; I don't care about your opinion."

"I don't know how to respond to that."

"It wouldn't work anyway. It's a Catch-22. The amount of alcohol that would require would kill me."

"I also don't know how to respond to that."

[X]

"Hey, Hercules, want to make a thousand dollars?" is by far Azula's best pick-up line to date.

[X]

"So, I tell people I had sex with you, and you're going to pay me for that?"

"Yes. But you _must_ tell Ty Lee. _Must_ tell _her_. She's the only one who matters."

"I…" Hercules scratched his head. "Why not?"

Azula counts on him being too drunk to notice that she does not pay him. _He_ should be the one paying _her_ , after all. Being wholly allowed to claim you slept with Azula Shinohai is worth a quarter of a million at least.

[X]

"So, he paid me a hundred thousand to go on a dinner date and another hundred thousand to take my clothes off. The sex part was free so it does not count as prostitution," Mai explains to Katara as they sit in the kitchen, surrounded by parts of costumes and half-empty drinks.

Katara sets her chin on the palm of her hand and gazes at Mai.

"Are we friends now?" she asks. She _did_ just hear the story of how Mai and Ozai got together, after Katara explained how she and Zuko did. Katara's story was by far more interesting; she and Zuko worked together on a charity involving doctors and hated each other's guts until one evening they got trapped in a basement with nothing but green novelty candles and time. They got together after that and still had a fondness for candlelit nights to this day.

"We can be friends until this party is over," Mai offers.

Katara exhales softly and tries not to gouge her own eyes out.

She wishes she had the key to that basement and never fell in love with a man who had a family as monumentally terrible as this one.

[X]

At sunrise, Ty Lee throws a candle at Azula.

A candle that is still on fire. The hot wax bursts out and spills all over the marble floor, but Azula dodges before it can do her any harm.

"I can't believe you—"

"I can't believe you kissed that man!" Azula exclaims, snuffing the candle out by kicking it against a wall.

" _He_ kissed _me_ and you did something so much worse!" Ty Lee sobs.

"I did it in retaliation, therefore any suffering you feel right now is entirely your fault!" Azula screams, her hands twitching towards a chair. She wants to smash it to bits, but manages to contain herself.

Ty Lee runs away, crying hysterically.

A woman slinking away from the party shoots a glare Azula's way.

 _"_ _Loud bitches_ ," she mutters under her breath as she leaves.

Azula sits down on her sofa and glares at the fireplace.

[X]

In the afternoon, Bunny performs her usual Halloween ritual of making anyone she can get her paws on watch _Hocus Pocus_ with her, which was Ty Lee's tradition before she passed it down. Mai sits with her granddaughter nestled beside her, Azula and Ty Lee reclining side by side on the sofa.

Something happened between them last night but Mai is not getting involved. She is way too tired and hungover to referee relationship problems.

"This movie is making me sad," Ty Lee blurts out, no longer able to take the tension between her and Azula.

Azula crosses her arms. She only could bring herself to sit beside Ty Lee for Bunny's sake; she was not about to _talk to her_. Azula Shinohai keeps silent.

Mai sighs. "Fine, I'll bite. Why is this movie making you sad?"

"Because it reminds me of _us_ and how good of friends we always were and how we were the three witches for three Halloweens and now everybody and everything is ruined." Tears blossom in Ty Lee's eyes. Bunny pauses the movie.

"I didn't _really_ cheat on you, okay?" Azula says, patting Ty Lee's hand. She had no idea she would cave so easily. God, is this what love is? "I just wanted to emotionally devastate you for kissing that guy."

Mai turns to her granddaughter as Ty Lee throws her arms around Azula. "Never, ever, model your relationships after your parents."

Bunny is clever enough to nod and agree with her grandmother.

[X]

Mai loses a game of rock-paper-scissors and takes both Valerie and Bunny trick-or-treating, along with Katara and Kya. Azula and Ty Lee sit in Azula's bedroom with a flashlight, sleeping bags they dredged up and a flashlight.

"Let me tell you a horror story that's a love story too," Azula says, holding the flashlight up to her face. "There once was a peasant man who fell in love with a noble girl. He got her pregnant, and when her father found out, he had three men sent after him. The man fought back and killed all three of them. The town, incited by the words of the old rich man, lynched the peasant on the night of October 31st."

"Lynched?"

"Strung up in a tree."

"Strung up?"

"Hanged in a tree. By the neck. With rope. To kill him."

"Oh."

"The noble girl gave birth to a son, now an outcast so her son grew up a bastard and a peasant. He fell in love with a noble girl who was engaged to a total jerk. He got her pregnant and they planned to elope on Halloween night while the town was busy celebrating. Her fiancé found out and claimed the peasant kidnapped her. The peasant boy told his love to play along with that lie so she wouldn't meet the same fate as his mother. She fled, like he told her to, and he was arrested.

"But her fiancé beat her and she lost the baby. Broken by this, she ran to break her love out of jail. They didn't make it far, and decided to die on their own terms. They hung themselves side by side in the same tree his father was lynched in.

"They say, to this day, their ghosts still haunt the Hanging Tree, and every Halloween break free of their bonds in order to kill young couples who take their love for granted."

Azula flicks off the flashlight and Ty Lee flinches.

"G-good thing we don't take our love for granted," Ty Lee whispers. She feels Azula's lips against hers in the dark.

Azula bites down on Ty Lee's lower lip. It is perfect.

Then Zuko pounds on the door.

"Katara says we have to say goodbye to all of you," he shouts, because he apparently never talks quietly.

Azula sighs and flicks on the lights of her bedroom. When she opens the door, she sees Kya holding Zuko's hand. Her niece hugs Azula's knees and then skitters away to go find her mom.

"This was slightly less horrible than it could have been," Zuko says and Azula shuts the door in his face to return to her wife.

"Now that there are no more tedious interruptions..." Azula purrs.

[X]

"Goodbye, father," Zuko says after Ozai gives a somewhat convincing hug to his new granddaughter. "I hope you enjoyed this because it's the last time I'm ever coming here."

"You keep saying that but you never follow through. It's flaky and pathetic."

Zuko sighs and turns to his girlfriend. She jingles the car keys and they leave the mansion.

On the doorstep, outside of Mai and Ozai's mansion, Zuko says, "I actually have no idea why they hate me. I know I say stuff about girlfriend-stealing and disappointing my father but I just don't get why they want me in their lives about as much as they want the plague."

Katara shrugs. "They're all just a bunch of assholes anyway."

They exchange a glance and walk away with Kya in tow.

 **The End**


End file.
